Thanksgiving Weekend

After spending Thanksgiving with Tricia's family, we traveled to San Elijo State Beach on Friday for the balance of the weekend.  Friday night we went to Campo to take the Polar Express train ride from the Pacific Southwest Railway Museum.  The train left the station and traveled to the North Pole where we picked up Santa and returned to the train station.  Here is a picture of Kinsey with Santa.

On Saturday we attended the first birthday of our great grand niece in San Diego.  Here are a couple of pictures of the pinata breaking and the birthday girl.

Santa Barbara and Vintage Trailers

Last Wednesday, we left home and traveled to the Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara for an Airstream club rally.  There were 17 trailers and about 35 members in attendance.  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were spent relaxing at the Showgrounds, there was a swap meet on the grounds Thursday and a book sale all weekend which we attended and bought a few books.  On Saturday, we went to the Flying Flags RV Park in Buellton to tour the Buellton Vintage Trailer Bash.  The pictures are from that rally, there were about 200 trailers, the oldest being a 1937 Covered Wagon and a 1937 Pierce Arrow trailer.

1954 Liner posts

I have decided to copy some of my posts on the 1954 Double Door Liner acquisition and rebuild from another site to this blog.  This post was originally made in July, 2005 and here it is with pictures:

Well, we are back, after fifteen days, twelve hours and 5,602 miles. We is myself, my wife, Beth, my number two daughter, Anne and her friend, Tricia. In six days we drove to Tampa, FL through El Paso, San Antonio, dinner at Riverwalk and a tour of the Alamo, Houston, baseball game, home team Astros won, lunch at Nicks in Eunice, LA, center of cajun culture and home of 101.1 FM KBON Louisiana Proud, stop at Avery Island and the Tabasco Plant, dinner at Emerils in New Orleans, begnets at Cafe DuMond, lunch at Lulu's (Jimmy Buffett's sister) at Homeport Marina in Gulf Shores, Al and then to Tampa and the 1954 Double Door 30' Liner. We spent two plus days replacing the axles and wiring the brakes, etc, visit with Jim Smith, the Silver Albatross, see the Devil Rays lose to the Marlins, and then left for the return trip. Seven days back, through Plains, GA, Vicksburg, MS, Dallas, return unused wheels and brakes and see the Rangers beat the Angels in eleven innings, Carlsbad Caverns, visit with Brad Norgaard in Phoenix and now home. Also met GunnyUSMC (from Airforums.com) on the way to Shreveport, good luck to you in Texas and hope to see you again.

We took the 1977 Lincoln which performed flawlessly both ways. Will compute mileage both bobtail and towing, later and will share with anyone who is interested. A vintage tow vehicle will perform on a long trip if properly maintained, and the comfort greatly exceeds a pickup or Suburban or Excursion.

Now the fun begins, take stock of the trailer condition, develop a plan of attack and rehab the Liner to the glory it deserves.

Here are a few pictures after we arrived home. More to come as the rebuild progresses.

Almost ready for Salida and RMVAC

Sink is installed, faucet is installed, water and drain are hooked up.  The only thing left is to hookup the switch for the water heater and then pack.  We will be on our way to Salida on Saturday.

Unlike our trip to Bozeman two years ago, nothing was scratched off the to do list.

Countertops

Formica is on the counters and table and drawer slides are in.  Task for this next week Drawers.

Brown Stove

I was asked to post a better picture of the stove in our Liner, so here it is.

No work on the Liner this weekend, we spent the weekend at Doheny State Park for Doheny Wood. But here are some pictures of the work last week.

Here are also some pictures from last years Doheny Wood.

Spent Saturday and Sunday rewiring the alternator circuit on the W200. When I removed the instrument panel to bypass the alternator I found the burned wire at the gauge.

After completing all of the rewiring, as described by the Mad Electrician, the truck started.

Hooray, all is well in the world, now I can pick up the Liner and start on the cabinets this next week.

On Monday, on a short trip around the block, my truck stopped running and would not restart. The starter would not turn over, plenty of gas and a charged battery. I called AAA and they brought it home. Thinking that I had an ignition switch problem, I started tearing the steering column apart. I am at the point where I need to press the column out of the bearing to reach the switch. In the process I discovered burned wires in the connector inside the cab from the firewall to the column. Further searching found the hot wire from the starter relay to the firewall connector also burned. I appears that I have a short somewhere, or just 37 year old wiring and connectors.

The first picture is the connector inside the cab from the firewall to the steering column, the second picture is the connector from the steering wheel to the firewall, it connects to the first picture. The third picture is the firewall connector inside the engine compartment and the last picture is the connector from the starter relay.

I found information on the Dodgetalk.com forum which tells me that this is not an uncommon problem because of the way that the amp gauge is wired and the best way to prevent a re-occurrence is to replace the burned wiring, run a wire through the firewall, bypassing the connector and also bypass the amp gauge.

I also found information, courtesy of the Dodgetalk.com forum, which explains the problem and a solution. The information is here: http://www.madelectrical.com/electricaltech/amp-gauges.shtml

Opening Post

This is our opening post in the blog-o-sphere.

We live in Orange, CA and are currently restoring a 1954 29' Airstream. Model name - Liner. This trailer has two doors, very unique in 1954. We have replaced the floor, stripped out the inside skin, reinsulated, rewired (12V and 110V) and reinstalled the interior skin. The inside is now ready for paint, it will be red, white and blue Zolatone. The next step will be to install the floor covering (Marmoleum in Bleeker Street) and then build cabinets.